Thursday, May 03, 2007

Thursday 05/03 A.M. Quickie:How Can You NOT Root for the Warriors?

How can you NOT root for the Warriors? The NBA regular season was a dud. The NBA playoffs have been a dud...

...With the exception of the Warriors, who have single-handedly become a rare captivating storyline this year in pro basketball, as they attempt to make history and close out the Mavs at home in Oakland tonight.

Why have the Warriors thrived as an instant fan favorite?

By all accounts, the team is what the NBA has built to avoid (and I'm oversimplifying here): Disorganized gunners from an obscure market -- castoffs, rejects and freaks melded together unconventionally (the only way they could be)... and thumping the so-called "best" team in the league.

It's not just that it's an 8-seed beating a 1-seed in a 7-game series for the first time in NBA history, which would be awesome enough. (In fact, the NBA is insane not to put the game in primetime on the East Coast. Enough of the tyranny of 10:30 p.m. tip times!)

It's not just that the Warriors eked into the playoffs or that Baron Davis has emerged as this spring's Dwyane Wade – the player everyone seems to have "always" liked, even though they never talked about the guy before this run.

It's that this Warriors team defies everything most fans thought they knew about the NBA -- even in this intriguing "Sunsified" era, the up-and-down strategic style that will do more to save the league than any individual talent or marketing campaign.

Unless you are from Dallas or are a Mavs fan, you cannot be an NBA fan – or a sports fan – and not be rooting for the Warriors tonight. Rooting for history. Rooting for anarchy.

(After writing up this post, I noticed that the inimitable MJD had a similarly themed post on NBA Fanhouse. Here's the link.)

Suns bounce Lakers: Kobe Bryant has to be feeling a little bit worse right now -- he will never win with this Lakers team. As the NBA evolves, he's a remnant: The center-of-gravity scoring machine with virtually no help.

The Lakers have two choices: Either trade uber-prospect Andrew Bynum for players who can help Kobe and Odom win NOW... or trade Kobe so that he can help a legitimate contender go for the title.

What Kobe and the Lakers are in now is the NBA's purgatory.

Spurs oust Nuggets: AI and Melo never turned into what everyone thought/hoped they would be, but maybe with a full season together next year, they will fulfill that insane promise.

The two close-outs set up a Suns-Spurs Western semifinal that, for many (including me, now that my "Re-Heat" pick imploded), is the de facto NBA Finals: The winner of that series will win the NBA title. (Before the playoffs began, I picked the Spurs, but I'm absolutely rooting for the Suns. How can you root against progress?)

Bonds: 743

MLB Stud: Josh Beckett, who racheted his record to 6-0.

MLB Dud: Marty Miller. Is there a more ill-advised name in today's era of sports than "Director of Player Enhancement?" In its most benign terms, it means "strength coach," and Miller filled that role for the Yankees. Until a rash of injuries derailed the club's season after only one month and he was canned.

(More: King Felix will be held out of the rotation one more turn. Caution or foreshadowing?)

Vick Scandal: It's amazing that the guy – perhaps the most elusive QB in NFL history -- is going to be sacked by dogs.

College Sports: 112 D-1 sports programs were nicked by the NCAA for failing to meet benchmarks from the new Academic Progress Rate. (APR... like you're buying a car!)

Only 63 out of more than 6,000 programs will be immediately affected. There's apparently a reprieve this year adjusted for smaller team sizes.

But that loophole goes out the window next year, so the 44 percent of men's hoops and 40 percent of football programs who fell below the required threshold this year better get their acts together.

The hot chant from the student section? "Cook! Those! Books!"

(The only BCS-league football to get hit was Arizona. The only major-conference hoops team to get hit was -- I'm sure you can guess -- Cincinnati.)

Brandon Roy wins NBA Rookie of the Year: He earned all but one first-place vote, which went to Andrea Bargnani, who got the vote from... the Raptors play-by-play broadcaster.

To his credit, Chuck Swirsky openly defends his vote, but if he was the play-by-play guy for the Blazers (or any other team but the Raptors), I wonder if he would have maintained such strong convictions?

(Related: Media people are biased enough as it is. Why are team play-by-play guys -- effectively team employees -- allowed to vote on these awards? As with all awards, they should be voted on by the fans, where the large vote totals would largely mitigate voter bias.)

NFL: Roger Goodell wants to hold a summit on concussions next month, and it's mandatory for all teams. Say this for The Commish: He's been incredibly assertive during his reign, but in a good way.

NBA refs racial bias, cont'd: At least one prominent player, Kobe Bryant, says he doesn't see it. Meanwhile, the one detail I found most fascinating was that the researchers picked out 12 NBA players who could be classified as either black or white. I was trying to figure out which dozen players they were talking about.

Meanwhile, the study is getting hammered by mainstream media. I think they are misreading the findings, which didn't say simplistically that NBA refs are racist. It merely said that the evidence supports the idea that NBA refs aren't immune to at least some form of measurable subconscious race-based decision-making while doing their job.

KentuckyDerby: Curlin, the favorite, drew the unfavorable No. 2 spot. I'll have my prediction tomorrow. (Remember that, last year, I came through with my Prediction of the Year: Barbaro to win.)

Mayweather vs. De La Hoya: I find it quaint that the mainstream sports media is making such a big deal out of what is effectively a non-event. Consider that this is the single biggest boxing event of the year, perhaps the ONLY boxing event with any traction whatsoever. What does that say about the sport? Compare that, say, to mixed martial arts.

The only intriguing part of the fight is whether it will beat the old record of 1.99 million pay-per-view purchases. But, again, that doesn't speak to the viability of the entire sport -- just two fighters' marketing value, which is hardly limitless.

53 comments:

No comments on anything but the boxing.Mixed martial arts...the UFC phenomenon... I think there's just too much of it. Too many events, too much coverage. I find it difficult to see the greatness in these fighters because there are so many and its hard to gauge who is really good and who just landed a lucky punch. That is likely just me though.I always liked that boxing had fewer blockbuster fights. Why hype up the lesser boxers? If they are good, they'll get there eventually. The heavyweight division is dead,b ut this fight coming up will be a good one, at least in name and pedigree, and that's what a fan would hope for.

"As with all awards, they should be voted on by the fans, where the large vote totals would largely mitigate voter bias."

You want Yao Ming to win the MVP every year? Have you seen the Chinese voting machine in action? This is just a terrible idea. A hated player from a hated team(read Kobe) would have no chance (compared to the little chance now) of ever winning an MVP. If you really want a true MVP, have the players vote, not the fans.

How can you be so convinced that the Suns and the Warriors play some new progressive style of basketball that will revolutionize the sport??? Didn't the Nuggets do this in the 80's? The Sacto Kings and the Dallas Mavs did the same in the early 2000's. None of those teams even made it to the finals running a gimmick offense. Stop getting all hot and sweaty over this style of basketball, like Bill Simmons. Sports writers like you need to stop being so knee-jerk about everything and look at te facts: the playoffs are where gimmick offenses go to die. I have 100 years of basketball history to back that up.

Let's go ahead and schedule that basketball game for an 8:30 start, who cares that the people who actually paid for tickets would have to go at a time inconvient to them. You wonder why people complain about east coast bias. I'm rooting for Dallas to win in a controversial manner just to listen to all the "NBA is fixed" talk.

As for the study, I love how media are pushing the fact that white referees call more fouls on black players, but don't push the issue that the opposite was also found to be true. Double standard?

The DLH-Mayweather fight is the exception to the norm. It's the first fight in a long time that I can remember where I've actually heard of the two fighters. And boxing has just as much exposure if not more than the UFC when you factor in the HBO and Showtime weekly boxing shows, espn's fight nights, and the contender. The UFC has more pay-per-views because they are better at marketing their fights (in the US, can't speak about boxing elsewhere). The major problem with boxing is the lack of name recognition in the heavyweight division. The heavyweights are the "marquee" events and right now there's no American to market and generate interest.

As I said at the end of yesterday, the Rookie of the Year voting is stupid. The same thing that happend this year with Roy/Bargnani and the Raptors play-by-play guy, happend last year with Paul/Williams and the Jazz play-by-play guy. There is no excuse for the NBA letting guys vote for guys in their own organization. They have to make it like the Pro Bowl where you can't vote for your own guys.

I think the Lakers need to blow it up now so they can win soon. In my expert opinion Kobe has about 4-5 peak years left. Sure, by then Bynum might be a superstar but you can't waste the next 3 years with Smush, Vujacic, Kwame and all the rest of the crap they surrounded Kobe with. Trade Bynum, Farmar, and Radmonavic/Cook and a pick for KG and get it over with. That leaves you with Kobe, KG, Odom, Walton, and go draft a guard.

If the Warriors are smart they will really push it after halftime tonight to stretch a lead and then waste athe clock in the 2nd half of the 4th quarter. In game 5, they only did the former and it killed them. At this point I don't think anybody needs to be coached towards rooting for them as this seems to have become a self explanatory foregone conclusion.

It is a shame that boxing has fallen out of favor with most people. Maybe it is the shadiness of it all. I just remember all the hype for the hagler leonard fight back in like 86 and that was a spectacle. That was a fight with talents comparable to the de la hoya mayweather fight yet as a casual fan I feel that the hype machine isn't really working in this fight's favor.

Why would a PA announcer deserve a vote for the ROY? Sure they get to see most of the games so they are familiar with the candidates but how can these homers be impartial?

Can't wait to see the Rays play at wide world of sports next week. They really look good at times this year. They have so much offensive talent and pretty decent starting pitching just no bullpen. Kazmir is the guy who gets all the pub but Shields is the man. IF we can lock them up with a long term deal I could totally see them becoming a cornerstone for my team. We have our power pitcher and now we have our finesse pitcher. Things are looking up in St Pete.

On a non sports related note I am moving to Chicago on June 1st. If anyone familiar with the city has any recommendations for places to grab a beer and watch a game please let me know. I guess there won't be any Winghouses or Miller's Ale Houses up there.

shpiders- Has there been a better goal this year than the bicycle kick Crouch had a few weeks back. It sucks that because AC have Seedorf that they are a lock to win. All that guy does is collect trophies, now if he could just lend some of his magic to his national team.

The study said that an all Black referee staff compared to an all white one was like to call 0.4 more fouls per game. Since there are 3 referees, that translates to 0.13 fouls per game per referee. So once every six games, a white referee is going to call one extra foul against a black player.

If anything, the study shows that referees are fairly color blind and impartial.

Like Mark Twain said, "There are lies, there are damned lies and then there are statistics."

Red Wings comeback was amazing. I have no problem with announcers voting. That is why you have people from every organization represented. We expect people to be biased towards their own organization but that evens out. Like Dane said, you could just preclude them from voting for their own organization.

I hate fan voting. It turns into a popularity, media coverage, large market driven vote. I don't know or follow every team and player but there are people who are paid to do that. Someone who follows sports all day is more like to make an educated vote than a fan who simply votes for the guy he likes or comes from the same country.

If we think refs are biased, how about fans and sports writers? Nash won the MVP the last two years - think about it.

Also, I 100% agree with Jeffrey and Dane (and anyone else who mentioned it) - Most, if not all of us, rail on for days when the NBA All-Stars, MLB All-Stars, and the Pro Bowl are voted on by fans, leading to players getting put on All-Star teams when they haven't played half a season.

Remember a couple years back, Nomar Garciaparra was the leading vote getter in the National League for a month... even though he hadn't played a game in almost 12 weeks?

Maybe a percentage of the votes should be run by the fans (30%? 33.33333%? 50%?), but let the people who watch all the games have just as much say.

Now, all that being said, maybe there just shouldn't be any "local voting" by announcers or beat writers, only the "National Guys" should vote for major awards.

No, that's a horrible idea. Bayless, SaS, Mariotti & Paige determining the ROY every year would just be ugly.

If Kobe gets traded, that would be the biggest affirmation in sports history that a team traded the wrong guy (Shaq). And I'm not talking about bad trades or lopsided trades (e.g., Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson or Hershell Walker for every draft pick in Minnesota). I simply mean, the straight out worst decision by an owner/GM/team when being handcuffed by a self-absorbed superstar. It would simply kill the franchise for the next 3 years (about how long it would take to cultivate 2 drafted players to make up the loss of Kobe in the lineup).

Spur/Suns is the defacto NBA Finals? Something tells me the Pistons or Bulls MIGHT have something to say about that. I truly think the Bulls have all the goods to stop the Spurs or the Suns- and the Pistons are not far behind. Sure, it may make for "Most Boring Finals Ever: Part II" if the Pistons and Spurs make it, but I seriously doubt it is a Spurs cakewalk.

Preferably, I want to see the Suns make it and give a little life to the Finals. Suns and Bulls, from where I sit, is the best possible matchup given the remaining teams in the playoffs.

P.S. If you haven't been watching the NHL playoffs, but you have watched the NBA playoffs, you are SO missing the best post-season of all major sports from the 2006 and 2007 seasons. This year's NHL playoffs are absolutely amazing. And that is coming from a lifelong hockey player and NHL fan- one of the top 3 playoff seasons all time in the NHL thus far.

Okay, railing agaisnt 10:30 PM tipoffs on the east, for west-coast teams? I know it sucks, I am an east-coaster, but could you be more selfish here? Westerners already put up with having east-coast games happening while they are still at work, and now you want them to adopt horrible 5PM start times for their own teams just so you can get you beauty sleep? Wow.

You know what would be great? If they had a team use one of those movie baseball announcers for a game. Like Harry Doyle from Major League (Juuuuuuust a bit outside) or Wally Holland from Little Big League (He's first in the league the last five years against pitchers he's facing for the first time, after the 6th inning, at home. Well that's something.)

The mere existence of the west coast forces us to deal with 8:30 pm starts for world series games, and MNF started at 9:10 for years. That's exactly why I got a kick out of the Patriots Day game scheduled for 10 am....it woulda been a big f-u to Seattle, although the rain pushed it back to noon.

You can always put a TV or radio on at work....but you can't always function at work on 3 hours sleep the next day!

Starting a weekday, non-holiday game (other than regular season baseball) before 6:30pm local time is loopy in any major American team sport (of course, so's starting after 8pm local). Because, you know, the local fans (you know, the ones that actually go to the game, or have been watching their team all season long) might actually have jobs...

Big dud to MLB denying Cleveland's protest. Sure, the umpires got the call right, but retroactively adding a run to the scoreboard two innings after the play should have been grounds to uphold a protest. The fact that MLB didn't even offer an explanation is ridiculous. Handled incredibly poorly. Wedge's point that it does affect how the game is played, regardless of the inning, is dead on.

This warriors thing is just like the NCAA tournament. It is like you can't handle any sporting event unless an underdog wins. Yeah it makes for a good story but who would you rather watch the spurs/suns winner play in the western finals? It is ridiculous to pull for teams bc they are unprecedented underdogs. Get over this david and goliath complex you seem to have and just enjoy good sports as good sports. When dirk hit those two threes at the end of game five you had to enjoy it even if it was the big mighty number one coming back on lowly weak number 8. How could you not enjoy it? Are you allergic to good teams, does quality play (vs whatever that trash the warriors bring)give you hives. Stop pulling for an outcome and just enjoy what you are watching.

thank g-d for tivo, there is no way i could get up and go to school if i stayed up tho watch the games, but with tivo i just do it the next morning.

oh and you gotta root for the warriors, i mean they are exciting and play such a scramble style and fro thsoe whos say the kigns played like this, no they dind;t they had weber and flopy divac. so they played fast but not like the warriors do.

"In fact, the NBA is insane not to put the game in primetime on the East Coast. Enough of the tyranny of 10:30 p.m. tip times!"

Oh boo-hoo to the east coast. Do the people on the east coast ever stop thinking about themselves for once? I keep hearing this. If they move it to say 7 or even 8 pm start time for eastern time that means the people in CALIFORNIA, the state that GS IS FROM, won't even be home from work by the time the damn game starts! Boo-hoo I say, boo-hoo. The world does not revolve around the east coast.

This is not to knock everyone on the eastern seaboard, not everyone is like this, but I'm sick of the sports mediots crying that they can't watch the teams out west. The teams out west are scheduled to tailor the needs of their own damn fans, not some guy who lives in Brooklyn that might want to casually watch the game. Suck it up, Shanoff.

I always thought it'd be a great idea for a baseball team to hire the manager from Major League to manage the team. I mean, have a real bench coach who could fill out the lineup and make strategic decisions, but just have that coach there to say things like "Forget about the curve, Ricky, bring 'em the heater" or unveil a topless cutout of your owner to motivate the guys to play better.

"It's not just that it's an 8-seed beating a 1-seed in a 7-game series for the first time in NBA history..."

Considering that the only way an 8-seed can beat a 1-seed is in the 1st round and that the NBA just switched the format from a 5-game 1st round to a 7-game 1st round 3 short years ago...not quite as impressive as it sounds eh?

The only contention I have against west coast games starting so late is that the Red Wings are stuck in the Western conference. Once the playoff rolls around they end up playing a team or two in another time zone and we get stuck having to stay up until 1:00 to watch our local team (this year, for example: Calgary, San Jose and possibly Anaheim in the conference finals... come on). Please NHL, PLEASE, move the Red Wings to the Eastern Conference.

I'll give you a reason the NBA should root against the Warriors: TV ratings. The NBA does not market teams, they market individual players. Dallas winning and advancing would be "best" for the NBA because they can continue to market Nowitski, who is more widely known than anyone on the Warrior. I didn't even know Baron Davis was still playing until this series. It's easier to sell the product if Dallas wins. And that's what the NBA wants. The only way the Warriors run will benefit the NBA is if it runs all the way to the finals (Knicks anyone?) which would be a joke.

Lakers Question: Why doesn't anyone talk about the option that Kobe and Lamar offer to restructure their contracts to clear cap space. Is it a) because it's not legal under league rules or b) because it's so preposterous to even think that an NBA star, let alone his agent, would allow this to occur?

Why does everyone keep saying that the winner of the Spurs/Suns series is going to win the title? They said the same thing about the Mavs/ Spurs last year and guess what? The Heat won the ship. I know the East is "weaker" but you don't have to play the entire field, you only have to beat one team. I think the Pistons could beat either of the top teams in the West. Let's just see who advances before we hand the title to the west umkay.

How can you say the NBA playoffs have been a total dud outside of Mavs-Gstate? The Rockets series has been phenomenal basketball and Raptors-Nets has been filled with drama. Classic unnecessary overhyping and generalizing.

All anyone mentions is the East and West Coasts. That's great one of you always seems to get screwed.

How about us in the Central time zone. You those us who have followed the Mavericks all year? Those of who have had to accommodate the West Coast in this series by starting home games at 8:30 with the Oakland games at 9:30. I haven't been to bed before midnight on any of the nights a game is played.

I guess I'm just tired of hearing both sides piss and moan. Can't we agree that we all get a little screwed. We should all push to have businesses close early during the playoffs, that way everyone could be accommodated.

Kevin Garnett has an opt-out clause in his contract at the end of next season.

Now for the rumor; The Heat will attempt to rebuild next season because of all the people they lose this off-season. KG has said that he would like to play with Shaq so imagine Shaq, Wade, Riley. KG will take a pay cut to get the ring and that team will just be unstoppable.

If that goes down, I can't imagine how the East will keep up. What would be the over/under on a wins? 65?

(before we get into this I'll give some info:3-point lines:19'9- Boys high school, girls high school, mens college, womens college20'6- Olympics, international leagues, WNBA20'9- new proposed mens college22- NBA from the corner23'9- NBA from the top of the key)

I saw that article. It is proposed, not accepted yet. That said, it will be accepted. In inner basketball circles, college basketball was starting to be the butt of many jokes because the 3-point line was less than 20 feet. When the USA goes to the Olymipics the players have said that the line being so close is one of the things that throws them off because they feel like they are on a playground. AND THAT LINE WAS 9 INCHES FARTHER THAN THE COLLEGE LINE. If you move the line to 20'9 you look semi-respectable. I still think that the NBA is good but the other should look like this...

I remember hearing Bobby Knight lament the three-point shot. If the purpose of the game is to get as good a shot as possible (meaning closer to the hoop), then why are rewarding teams for shooting from further away?

I would totally enjoy seeing some pre-season tourney (like the fall NIT) that uses experimental rule changes try a game without 3-pointers.

What the hell? The media is biased...therefore give the fans the MVP vote. How the hell does that make sense? At least if the media has a blatant bias, people notice and occasionally give a crap. But almost all fans are biased, by definition. And do you really think Morneau from Minnesota beats Jeter from New York in the MVP voting last year if the fans are voting? (No, Morneau didn't deserve it, but that's not the point - Jeter didn't really either.)

I know jeffrey (and maybe some others) already made this point, but look at the all-star voting. Unless you're comfortable with 7 of the next 10 MVP's coming from NY or Boston, please drop this ridiculous stance.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.